91 Operations Cancelled Last Minute

Over three months 91 patients had operations cancelled on the day they were due to have surgery at Torbay Hospital.

The most common reasons for delays between April and June were other operations taking longer than expected and emergency cases.

A spokesperson told Heart: "The Trust makes every effort to enable all operations to take place as planned and in the first quarter of this financial year 8,498 elective procedures were carried out. However, with such a large volume of operations taking place, a small number of postponements are unfortunately inevitable.

"The safety and quality of the treatment we provide is of the utmost importance and where there are circumstances which affect our ability to provide treatment and after-care to our usual high standard, we will always act in the best interests of the patrient and postpone the procedure.

"We recognise that a cancellation can be frustrating for the patient, and we re-book all procedures as soon as possible in discussion with the individual or their family."